The Little Dog Laughed

Hollywood - it's rife with spoilt stars and hypocrites, and its movie-making machine is oiled by vast quantities of cash. Oh, you already knew that? Then don't go to Jamie Lloyd's production of this Broadway import by Douglas Carter Beane in search of revelation. A brittle satire with neither edge nor teeth, it focuses its arch gaze on the Machiavellian Diane (Tamsin Greig), a barracuda of an agent with big plans for her hottest new property, promising young actor Mitchell (a rather charmless Rupert Friend). On a trip to a New York awards ceremony, Mitchell develops a tendresse for Harry Lloyd's Alex, a bisexual rent boy. Diane, herself a lesbian and a multi-tasker of ferocious efficiency, commences cramming her protege back into the same closet that famously confined Rock Hudson, while buying off both Alex's pregnant girlfriend Ellen (Gemma Arterton) and the author of a sexy Broadway play, who little suspects that his serious gay drama is about to get an anodyne Tinseltown makeover.

There are a few sharp one-liners as Greig, sleek, deadly and as consummate a comic performer as many a seasoned stand-up, slices through the theatrical fourth wall to commentate on the action. But like the most cynical La La Land product, this is heartless, soulless and pointless.